The true measure of wine pours

September 19, 2003|By Phil Vettel, Tribune restaurant critic.

This story started off as an investigation into chintzy wine pours.

Sparked by a couple of friends and colleagues who were griping about the amount of wine they were finding in their $10 glasses, we sent five reporters to 18 restaurants to see just how many ounces were in those one-third-filled wine glasses. Because, let's face it, wine glasses come in so many shapes and sizes that guessing wine volume is like working one of those optical-illusion which-line-is-longer puzzles.

So at each restaurant, we ordered one red and one white wine by the glass. As surreptitiously as possible, we measured each pour in a lab beaker. We phoned each restaurant to learn their "official" pour size, and compared that number to what we measured.

Our conclusion?

There are some pretty accurate bartenders in this town.

The majority of the places we surveyed poured exactly the amount they intended -- and sometimes a little bit more. Most restaurants aim for a 6-ounce pour (a mild surprise we'll address later), and deliver pretty much what they promise. We ran into one or two instances of undersized pours, but not enough to suggest anything beyond simple human error. (At one restaurant, the waiter poured two glasses of the same red wine at our table; one glass held a half-ounce more than the other.) Indeed, a couple of the restaurants that gave us slightly skimpy white-wine pours also delivered extra-large red-wine pours.

In hindsight, a touch of generosity should have been expected. Most restaurants have guidelines as to how many ounces should go into a glass of wine, but enforcement is haphazard at best. Ultimately, control rests in the hands of the bartender, whose drink-pouring calculus reads as follows: (Official size) + (tip potential) = generous pour.

The surprise was that some pours that looked modest in the glass proved to be large, or at least adequate, in the beaker. Thus our first bit of useful information: Wine glasses can fool you.

"The wine glass is my one concern," says Steve Byrne, partner in the new Oak Brook restaurant, Dixons. Dixons' pour size is five ounces, served in a tall, elegant stemmed glass. "But five ounces looks small in that glass," Byrne says. "John (partner John Dixon) says it'll be OK, but it makes me nervous."

Scott Harris likes the bistro tumblers that have been part of his Mia Francesca restaurant since its inception. The tumblers hold exactly six ounces, but "people think we're ripping them off," he says. "Especially the suburban customers." There have been enough complaints that the tumblers have been replaced, with stemmed wine glasses, in all the Francesca locations except the Clark Street original.

At Bin 36, a restaurant with a very ambitious wine program, the wine glass actually determined the size of the pour.

"We use a Riedel Overture glass for red and white wines [by the glass]," says wine director Brian Duncan. "We tested a lot of glassware, and the Riedel glass really stood out. But we thought the look with a five-ounce pour just wasn't as appealing. Visually, we felt six ounces was the most appropriate size."

Which brings up our other interesting finding: By-the-glass pours have gotten larger.

For years, a wine-by-the-glass pour was about five ounces, and cost about one-fourth the price of a full bottle. Because a bottle of wine holds a little more than 25 ounces, it was usually a better value to buy the bottle, which held five five-ounce pours, than to spend the same price on four glasses.

The clear trend, however, is toward six-ounce pours--or more.

"You've got to pour a healthy glass of wine these days," Harris says. "People expect it. If you have to charge 'em an extra buck, do it, but people want a hearty drink, whether it's scotch on the rocks or wine by the glass."

Harris, who understands the economics of selling liquor as well as anyone, nevertheless acknowledges a perception change when he's on the other side of the bar.

"I went into a restaurant, ordered a vodka on the rocks, and the drink only filled half the glass," Harris says. "I left unhappy. Charge me the $10, but give me a healthy pour."

The final point to consider is that a generous wine pour is not necessarily a bargain. If a restaurant charges $8 for an eight-ounce glass, but is pouring a wine that retails for $8 a bottle, you're obviously not getting a great deal. That $13, five-ounce pour might be the better value, depending on the quality of the wine.

But that's a whole other survey.

- - -

The wine pour: How much do you get?

Restaurant: Dixons, 1600 W. 16th St., Oak Brook, 630-684-0477

Official pour: 5 oz.

What we got: 5 oz.

The wine: Acacia pinot noir, $12.95; Caymus Conundrum, $11.

The glasses: Very elegant, tapered-bowl stemware.

Comments: Glass size makes the pour look skimpy, but they deliver what they promise.